According to the Chinese calendar, 2013 is the Year of the Snake. This ancient calendar runs in 12-year cycles. 2012 was the Year of the Dragon and 2011 was the Year of the Rabbit. 2010, the Tiger. Below you’ll see a photo of a snake, a young cottonmouth, I took in the U.S. Deep South Alabama earlier this year.

Cottonmouth. In the Deep South piney woods.

Positive and negative attributes of persons born in a Year of the Snake (2001, 1989, 1977, 1965, 1953, 1941 . . .) －

The person born in the year of snake is the wisest and most enigmatic of all. He/she can become a philosopher, a theologian, a political lizard or a wily financier. Such person is a thinker who also likes to live well. The snake – person loves books, music, clothes, and fine food; but with all his fondness for the good things of life, his innate elegance gives him a dislike for frivolities and foolish talk.

They like communicating and like interesting conversations, although if the conversation becomes repetitive their attention may soon wander. It is almost impossible to fix their attention for long talking about the weather. They prefer to focus on new interesting unusual ides and intelligent discussion in general.

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Your author actually has a little, recent, history with snakes in Japan. Below is a photo of yours truly, taken at the City of Hitachi’s Kamine Zoo in 2008. They thought I’d be all scared and freaked out by having a snake hung round my shoulders. They had little idea that I spent much of my childhood in the woodsy wilds of South Alabama . . .

Yours Truly, at Kamine Zoo. Hitachi, Japan. 2008.

Here are a few ways the Year of the Snake is being commemorated and celebrated in Japan:

“It’s a great year, you know!”

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So, Happy Year of the Snake and Best Wishes for Health and Prosperity in 2013!